Tour of the southern half of the north island

 The work at the office gets quite slow around the Christmas holidays so we decided to do some exploring. First, we decided to tour around the southern half of the north island. Our itinerary: Monday visit the glow worms at Waitomo Caves, then spend the night at Rotorua, Tuesday visit a Maori village and tour some geothermal sites near Rotorua and drive to Taupo lake, Wednesday visit the National Trout Centre at Turangi, the Tongariro National Park, and drive to Wellington, Thursday drive to New Plymouth, and Friday drive to Hamilton, visit the Hamilton Temple, and then drive back to Takapuna. As you can see, the drive from Auckland to Wellington is just about as long as the drive from West Yellowstone to Salt Lake City.

At Waitomo Caves, we took a cave tour that included a boat trip through a dark cave where the glow worms look like a sea of stars against the dark cave roof. They are actually carnivorous fungus gnat larvae that attach themselves to the dark roof and drop down a mucus like string that is bioluminescent at the tip. The glow attracts bugs that are caught and paralyzed by the mucus. The larvae then either sucks up the string or descends down the string to eat its prey. Pictures are not allowed in the cave so these are photos from postcards!

 We stopped in Otorohanga on the way to Rotorua for lunch at the Bakehouse Cafe (pies, of course) then had dinner at the Fainting Goat in Rotorua.

Thanksgiving (?)

 Early Thanksgiving dinner with all the senior missionaries!

On Saturday November 16 the senior missionaries from both the Auckland Mission and the Area Office gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Some missionaries from countries other than the USofA were celebrating their first Thanksgiving and had lots of questions about history, traditions, and, of course, food! The only things missing were family and football.

The senior missionaries

Elder and Sister Krieger after eating too much

Devonport and Victoria Hill

Auckland's eastern harbor (on the Pacific Ocean) is north of the central business district. The harbor is protected by a series of islands, some inhabited, some not. There is a peninsula across the harbor known as the North Shore. Takapuna, where we live and work, is in the North Shore. At the end of the peninsula is Victoria Hill which offered the British a natural place for a fort to protect the harbor. The town below Victoria Hill is Devonport, a pretty little town that is either a half-hour drive up and around the harbor then down over the bridge, or a quick ferry ride, to downtown. Since we live just north of Devonport, one Saturday we took the bus, climbed the hill, and enjoyed the views!

Climbing Victoria Hill

Auckland harbor overlook

Panorama view east south west

Devonport and islands

Heart of Devonport

Celebrity sighting? Steph Curry

Day at the Food Bank

Kathy and I work in the Church's Pacific Area Office of General Counsel. Our office took a day and volunteered at the New Zealand Food Network food bank. 

Bethells Beach

 We decided to explore another west coast beach, Bethells Beach. Northwest of Auckland are mountains so there is no coast road. To get to Piha or Bethells, which are only a few miles apart, you have to drive over the mountains on different roads. Our day was sunny in Takapuna but got cloudy then rainy as we drove over to the beach. We started with a picnic lunch on a table but it started to rain hard and we ate in the car. When the rain lessened, we headed over to the beach and walked down to a cave at the far end. Along the way there are protected areas where the Northern New Zealand dotterels (local name: Tuturiwhatu) are nesting in the sand. It cleared up for our walk and back, but once we left the beach heading through the dunes back to the car, the rain came down hard again.

Picnic lunch

Walking along Bethells Beach towards the cave

Tuturiwhatu

Bethells Beach

Day at the Races

Once a month the senior missionaries get together for an activity. For October, it was a day at the horse races. The ladies dressed for the day and we gathered for a picnic lunch before the gates opened. No gambling but there were prizes for picking. Points were given for picking win, place and show. In the third race Kathy correctly picked the horses that won, placed and showed in exactly that order! After following the odds the first two races and failing, she decided to look at them as they walked the parade and made her choices based on what she saw.

Pre-race picnic

Race day!

Racing on turf

Win, place and show in the third!

Piha Beach and Kitekite Falls

One reason Auckland is an interesting city is because it is at a narrow point on the north island where it has ports on both the Pacific Ocean (on the east where we live) and on the Tasman Sea (on the west). To celebrate Kurt's birthday, we decided on a visit to Piha Beach. Piha is on the western side of the island; our first trip to the Tasman Sea side of the island! Once you leave the city, the road curves up and down switchbacks over a mountain range. Our first stop was a hike to Kitekite falls. The path is in good shape but does have lots of stairs and one place requires crossing the stream over rocks. You may have seen flags or emblems for the NZ sports teams with a white fern on a black background. The Silver Fern is green on top but white underneath. The falls are beautiful! And we had a great hike.

The path to Kitekite Falls

Towering fern trees

Top of a Silver Fern

Underside of the Silver Fern

Stream crossing

Kitekite Falls

On the trail

The magnificent Kauri trees were once logged almost to extinction. Now protected, they are threatened by a soil-borne pathogen. So all the hikes into and out of forests with Kauri have a shoe cleaning and sanitizing station at both the entrance and exit.

Kauri Tree that avoided logging

Shoe sanitizing station

Then onto Piha Beach on the Tasman Sea! The rock formation is the Lion's Head. It didn't rain but was windy and cold.

Lion's Head

Piha Beach

Our last stop was Murray's for lunch. Unfortunately, we can't recommend the food but the atmosphere was great!

Murray's

Goodbye to Piha!

Saturday Day Trips

 Saturday Day Trips

For Kathy's birthday on September 14 we took the bus from Takapuna across the bridge to downtown Auckland. It was a misty day but we enjoyed a stroll along the harbor. At one point the bridge was closed so we took a free "ferry" across to the other side. We walked around downtown a bit more trying to find the lighthouse on the map, but found it was instead an "artwork [by Michael Parekowhai] in the form of a 1950s family home." 

The view from the bus to downtown Auckland

"The Lighthouse"

View from the wharf

The little ferry ride

The next weekend we drove up to Mairangi Bay, a little beach town about 15 minutes north. Our goal: to eat (and take home) some of the best pies in New Zealand. But these are not desert pies but rather what we would call pot pies. We bought a couple warm to eat at the beach and a couple cold to take home for later. The Mairangi Bay Bakery pies win the National Pie Awards almost every year and we are now devoted followers!

Pie eating at the beach!

A Silver Gull looking for a handout

Another Saturday we took a drive to a Saturday market in one of Auckland's southern suburbs. We were greatly impressed by the size of the produce but the shoppers habit of touching each and every item put Kurt off of buying.

Cabbage

Califlower

Pacific Area New Zealand Mission

Our mission to serve in the Pacific Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

President Kelly, Elder and Sister Krieger, Bishop Carroll

Kathy and Kurt Krieger were set apart as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Sunday, August 11, 2024, by our Stake President Donald Kelly. Joining us was our Bishop, Scott Carroll. Kathy was especially reminded to keep a detailed journal and Kurt was reminded to rely upon the Spirit especially to find unique solutions to problems. On Monday the 12th we flew to SLC from PBI (via ATL and an unscheduled stop in DEN because of weather in SLC). On Tuesday the 13th we started orientation at Church HQ. While in our training we were notified that we received our New Zealand visas, unexpectedly early! Wednesday we continued our OGC training then had dinner with the Schmutzes and Slaters. We spent the rest of the week in SLC doing some shopping.

Welcome to the MTC

On Saturday August 17 we took a shuttle and checked into the MTC in Provo. Our room was S2 334 where other senior missionaries are staying. Sunday we attended church in the MTC with other senior missionaries followed by a "Go and Do" exercise. The day was topped off by attending the Departure Devotional for all of the missionaries leaving the MTC the next week. After dinner we attended a Discipleship Devotional.

Devotional with the missionaries

Eating at the MTC took some getting used to as it is packed and is a very cafeteria style service with lines of junior missionaries at every station. The noise level makes it hard to enjoy the mediocre food. It turns out that the junior missionaries are instructed to let the senior missionaries cut in line and we took advantage of that if the line seemed extra long.

With the Walkers and Hepworth's

On Monday we had an orientation meeting, a welcome from the MTC presidency, and then we broke up into districts. Our district "J" consisted of us, Joe & Cyndee Hepworth (we got to know the Hepworths at our OGC orientation as they are headed to Tokyo where he will be an AALC) and E/S Walker (who are headed to the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors Center where they will work with Dave and Julie Colton.)

Monday afternoon was class, a tour of the MTC and a meeting with our MTC Branch Presidency. Each day we had class in the morning and afternoon, being taught out of the Preach My Gospel manual. Friday at noon our classes were over. 

View out our window

Our flat

Our complex

On Saturday we left the MTC and stayed two nights in SLC then on Monday August 26 we flew SLC to SFO then to AKL arriving Wednesday August 28. Paul (the Area Legal Counsel, our boss) and Irene Rytting picked us up at the airport and drove us to our "flat". We are staying at Shoalhaven Apartments, Unit A212, 130 Anzac St Takapuna. Two bedrooms, two baths, a small study, and a kitchen/dining area/living room with a TV and an up/down washer/dryer! Someone was kind enough to put some food in the cupboards and fridge that got us through the first few days. The flat is great except it has been unused for some time and has an overwhelmingly powerful mold/mildew smell that permeates everything.
We then stopped by the Area Office for a quick tour. That evening we had dinner with the Hafens who also work in OGC in the office. We started working on Thursday and worked until about 2 and again on Friday then out for some shopping each day. On Thursday the Hilliers took us out to Al Forno, their favorite restaurant in Takapuna. Friday night leftovers from Al Forno. Saturday it rained giving us the excuse to stay home and try to recover a bit more from the jetlag.

Showing our flat and office in Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland